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6 ERICKSON AND SIAU
realized as traces of system services, and their quality attributes are treated as dynamic, chang-
ing quantities that are measured during system execution.
Chapter 3, “Requirements Elicitation Techniques as Communication Channels: A Framework to
Widen the Window of Understanding” investigates and highlights the criticality of communication
—one of the foundations on which systems analysis and design rests—in the process of require-
ments elicitation. A broad reclassification of requirements elicitation techniques according to their
communication emphasis is presented. This classification is used to develop a model that can be
used to diagnose communication needs in a specific project setting and to provide guidance in
the selection of requirements elicitation techniques best suited to that setting. This chapter offers
suggestions for the practical application of the theoretic frameworks and identifies avenues for
future research.
Part II. Methodology Foundation and Evolution of Systems Analysis
and Design

Methodologies (Iivari, Hirschheim, and Klein, 2001) represent the specifics of how to implement
the more abstract approaches. The following chapters examine or develop specific methodologies
used in systems analysis and design.
Chapter 4, “Iteration in Systems Analysis and Design: Cognitive Processes and Representational
Artifacts,” examines the concept of iteration and how it has been applied to systems analysis and
design. It distinguishes between two domains of iteration: iterations inherent in cognitive processes
during design, and iterations over representational artifacts about designs. This chapter reviews
how the past research on systems analysis and design has treated iteration within these different
domains, what we know about these iterations, and how these iterations have been shown to af-
fect design outcomes. It concludes with an observation that the differences between “iterative”
or “agile” development and traditional methodologies lies not in the presence or absence of itera-
tion, but in the locus of visibility and control, and the associated timing and granularity of what
is being iterated.
Chapter 5, “A Framework for Identifying the Drivers of Information Systems Development
Method Emergence,” explores how unique and locally situated information systems development
(ISD) methods unfold over time and why they emerge differently. The purpose is to identify the
underlying process form and drivers of ISD method emergence. A theoretical framework is de-
veloped based on a synthesis of literature about contextualism, structuration theory, and change
processes. This chapter reports a comparative analysis of two longitudinal case studies of method
emergence in a Multimedia project and a Web project. It suggests that the theoretical framework is
relevant for both researchers and practitioners to read a situation before project initiation, during
development, and after project completion and to identify and leverage the dynamics inherent in
or relevant to a particular situation and change process.
Chapter 6, “Transition to Agile Software Development in a Large-Scale Project: A Systems
Analysis and Design Perspective,” reports the implementation of Extreme Programming, one
of the agile software development methods, in a large-scale software project in the Israeli Air
Force. The chapter also describes the transition from a plan-driven process to an agile one as it
is perceived from the systems analysis and design perspective. Specifically, during the first eight
months of transition, the project specifications and acceptance tests of the agile team are compared
with those of a team that continues working according to the previous plan-driven method. This
chapter discusses the role of systems analysts during the transition process and different develop-
ment models with respect to systems analysis and design.